The present invention relates to a store-and-forward type of electronic conference system, and particularly to a technique for improving the reliability of the electronic conference system, by minimizing the quantity of informations to be transmitted, or by assuring the sequence of informations to be transmitted.
Generally, an xe2x80x9celectronic conference systemxe2x80x9d designates or specifies those systems constituted for information-exchange between unspecified number of users. In a large-scale electronic conference system, the users of the electronic conference system are registered at each of geographically separated areas (hereinafter called xe2x80x9csitexe2x80x9d). The registered user can use only the site at which he has been registered.
In such an electronic conference system, there is generally adopted a store-and-forward type of communication system, such as in view of transmission speed of communication lines connecting between the sites. That is, the information generated at each of the sites is once stored into a transmission queue which stores informations to be transmitted, and then collectively or batch transmitted at each of a predetermined time of period. The information received at each sites other than the transmitting sites is once stored into a reception queue for storing received informations, and then processed by that background which has processing ability to spare.
Typically, electronic conference systems utilize those unit containers named xe2x80x9cforumxe2x80x9d. Further, the forums include hierarchical messages as informations.
However, in such an electronic conference system, there is adopted the store-and-forward type of communication system, so that there may occur such disadvantage, upon transmission of informations which have been stored in the transmission queue, as follows.
(1) In case that the informations are stored in the transmission queue in a sequence or order of xe2x80x9cmessage creation, message modification, and message deletionxe2x80x9d for a certain message, no effects will occur at the site which will receive these informations. Namely, when this series of informations comprising xe2x80x9cmessage creation, message modification, and message deletionxe2x80x9d are processed in this order or sequence, the message at issue will be resultantly deleted. This means that no processings have been executed for the message. As described above, the informations to be transmitted may include meaningless or wasteful informations, so that the communication efficiency may be deteriorated due to such wasteful increase of information quantity.
(2) When the transmission queue is stored such as with informations in a sequence of xe2x80x9ccreation of forumxe2x80x9d and xe2x80x9cwriting (i.e., creation) of a message into the forumxe2x80x9d, these informations should be transmitted in the order of xe2x80x9ccreation of forumxe2x80x9d and xe2x80x9ccreation (or writing) of messagexe2x80x9d. However, upon transmission of the information designating xe2x80x9ccreation of forumxe2x80x9d, there may occur a communication error such as due to trouble of a communication circuit. In this case, if the information designating xe2x80x9ccreation of messagexe2x80x9d is normally transmitted, there occurs such a trouble that the message is to be written into or created in a xe2x80x9cnot created forumxe2x80x9d.
In view of the aforementioned problems in the conventional technique, it is therefore a purpose of the present invention to dissolve the aforementioned defects to thereby improve the reliability of the electronic conference system, by optimizing the informations or assuring the sequence of the informations, stored in the transmission queue which realizes the store-and-forward type of communication system.
It is another purpose of the present invention to distribute those mediums which are recorded with the information transmission program according to the present invention, to thereby promote those persons, who have obtained such mediums, to easily constitute an information transmission apparatus.
A first solution for achieving the above purposes is constituted by: an information transmission apparatus in a store-and-forward type of electronic conference system in which operational informations representing operations performed for various objects are stored in a queue and the stored operational informations are batch transmitted between information administrating devices which administrate the various objects, the apparatus comprising an information deletion device for deleting the series of informations in the operational informations stored in the queue, which do not cause any resultant changes.
According to such a constitution, there are deleted, from those operational informations stored in the queue, the series of informations which do not cause any resultant changes. Namely, there is reduced the quantity of informations to be transmitted between information administrating devices, so that the optimization of informations is performed. Thus, the communication efficiency is improved by virtue of decrease of the quantity of informations, so that the reliability of the electronic conference system can be improved.
Concretely, the information deletion device may be constituted to delete, when a deletion operational information for a certain object is stored in the queue, those update operational informations for the certain object which update operational informations have been stored before the deletion operational information.
According to such a constitution, when a deletion operational information of a certain object exists in the queue, it can be judged that no resultant changes will be caused by update processings performed before the object deletion. Thus, by deleting the update operational informations for the certain object from the queue, there can be further reduced the quantity of informations to be transmitted between the information administrating devices.
Further, the information deletion device may be constituted to delete, when a creation operational information for the certain object which is an operation target of the deletion operational information is stored in the queue, the creation operational information and the deletion operational information.
According to such a constitution, when a creation operational information for the certain object exists in the queue, it can be judged that the certain object has not been created yet in other information administrating devices. Thus, by deleting the creation operational information and the deletion operational information from the queue, there can be further reduced the quantity of informations to be transmitted between the information administration devices.
Further, the information deletion device may be constituted to delete, when an update operational information for a certain object is stored in the queue, those update operational informations for the certain object which update operational informations have been stored before the update operational information.
According to such a constitution, even when the update of the certain object is performed for several times, it is possible for other information administrating devices to update the certain object to the latest contents by virtue of the latest update operational information only. Namely, it can be said that the truly necessary update operational information for the certain object is the latest one. As such, by deleting those update operational informations for the certain object which informations have been stored before the latest update operational information for the certain object, there can be further reduced the quantity of informations to be transmitted between the information administrating devices.
A second solution for achieving the above purposes is constituted by: an information transmission apparatus in a store-and-forward type of electronic conference system in which operational informations representing operations performed for various objects are stored into a queue and the stored operational informations are batch transmitted between information administrating devices which administrate the various objects, the apparatus comprising a transmission state registration device for registering the transmission state of the operational information, an error detection device for detecting as to whether a transmission error has occurred or not, a registration controlling device for registering into the transmission state registration device, when an occurrence of transmission error is detected by the error detection device, the information administrating means which is the destined information administrating device and for which the transmission error has occurred, a skipping device for retrieving the transmission state registration device, and for skipping the transmission of the operational information to the information administrating device which is registered in the transmission state registration device.
According to such a constitution, upon occurrence of a transmission error, there is registered into the transmission state registration device the information administrating device which is the destined information administrating device and for which the transmission error has occurred. Further, by the skipping device, there is skipped the transmission of operational informations toward the information administrating device which is registered in the transmission state registration device. Namely, those operational informations after occurrence of a transmission error are not transmitted to the information administrating device for which the transmission error has occurred, so that the sequence assurance of informations can be realized. Thus, even when the operational informations of objects have not been correctly transmitted, the sequence of the informations can be guaranteed, so that the reliability of the electronic conference system can be improved. Further, the communication efficiency can be also improved, since there is avoided the transmission to the information administrating device for which the transmission error has occurred.
The apparatus may further comprise an initializing device for initializing the transmission state registration device, upon transmission of the operational informations.
According to such a constitution, the transmission state registration device is initialized before transmission of operational informations. Namely, the operational informations are not transmitted to the information administrating device for which the transmission error has occurred, only within the period of time during which the series of operational informations stored in the queue are transmitted. Accordingly, such as in case that the cause of transmission error has been dissolved during the period of time between the last transmission and the transmission at this time, it is again tried to transmit the operational informations toward the information administrating device toward which the last transmission was not performed. Thus, toward the information administrating device for which the transmission error has occurred, the operational informations are transmitted after the cause of transmission error has been dissolved, so that the reliability of the electronic conference system can be further improved.
A third solution for achieving the above purposes is constituted by: an information transmission method in a store-and-forward type of electronic conference system in which operational informations representing operations performed for various objects are stored in a queue and the stored operational informations are batch transmitted between information administrating processes which administrate the various objects, the method comprising an information deletion process for deleting the series of informations in the operational informations stored in the queue, which do not cause any resultant changes.
According to such a constitution, there are deleted, from those operational informations stored in the queue, the series of informations which do not cause any resultant changes. Namely, there is reduced the quantity of informations to be transmitted between information administrating processes, so that the optimization of informations is performed. Thus, the communication efficiency is improved by virtue of decrease of the quantity of informations, so that the reliability of the electronic conference system can be improved.
Concretely, the information deletion process may be constituted to delete, when a deletion operational information for a certain object is stored in the queue, those update operational informations for the certain object which update operational informations have been stored before the deletion operational information.
According to such a constitution, when a deletion operational information of a certain object exists in the queue, it can be judged that no resultant changes will be caused by update processings performed before the object deletion. Thus, by deleting the update operational informations for the certain object from the queue, there can be reduced the quantity of informations to be transmitted between the information administrating processes.
Further, the information deletion process may be constituted to delete, when an update operational information for a certain object is stored in the queue, those update operational informations for the certain object which update operational informations have been stored before the update operational information.
According to such a constitution, even when the update of the certain object is performed for several times, it is possible for other information administrating processes to update the certain object to the latest contents by virtue of the latest update operational information only. Namely, it can be said that the truly necessary update operational information for the certain object is the latest one. As such, by deleting those update operational informations for the certain object which informations have been stored before the latest update operational information for the certain object, there can be further reduced the quantity of informations to be transmitted between the information administrating process.
A fourth solution for achieving the above purposes is constituted by an information transmission method in a store-and-forward type of electronic conference system in which operational informations representing operations performed for various objects are stored in a queue and the stored operational informations are batch transmitted between information administrating processes which administrate the various objects, the method comprising a transmission state registration process for registering the transmission state of the operational information, an error detection process for detecting as to whether a transmission error has occurred or not, a registration controlling process for registering into the transmission state registration process, when an occurrence of transmission error is detected by the error detection process, the information administrating process which is the destined information administrating process and for which the transmission error has occurred, a skipping process for retrieving the transmission state registration process, and for skipping the transmission of the operational information to the information administrating process which is registered in the transmission state registration process.
According to such a constitution, upon occurrence of a transmission error, there is registered into the transmission state registration process the information administrating process which is the destined information administrating process and for which the transmission error has occurred. Further, by the skipping process, there is skipped the transmission of operational informations toward the information administrating process which is registered in the transmission state registration process. Namely, those operational informations after occurrence of a transmission error are not transmitted to the information administrating process for which the transmission error has occurred, so that the sequence assurance of informations can be realized. Thus, even when the operational informations of objects have not been correctly transmitted, the sequence of the informations can be guaranteed, so that the reliability of the electronic conference system can be improved. Further, the communication efficiency can be also improved, since there is avoided the transmission to the information administrating process for which the transmission error has occurred.
A fifth solution for achieving the above purposes is constituted by: a medium recorded with an information transmission program in a store-and-forward type of electronic conference system in which operational informations representing operations performed for various objects are stored into a queue and the stored operational informations are batch transmitted between information administrating functions which administrate the various objects, wherein the medium is recorded with a program for realizing an information deletion function for deleting that series of informations in the operational informations stored in the queue, which do not cause any resultant changes.
In this respect, the term xe2x80x9cmediumxe2x80x9d is readable such as onto paper card (punch card), paper tape, magnetic tape, magnetic disk, magnetic drum, CD-ROM, IC card, which can assuredly record various informations which can be assuredly read out if required.
According to such a constitution, the medium is recorded with the program for realizing the information deletion function for deleting the series of informations in the operational informations stored in the queue, which do not cause any resultant changes. As such, the information transmission program according to the present invention can be distributed, and those, who have obtained such a medium, can easily constitute an information transmission apparatus, making use of a general electronic computer.
Concretely, the information deletion function may be constituted to delete, when a deletion operational information for a certain object is stored in the queue, those update operational informations for the certain object which update operational informations have been stored before the deletion operational information.
According to such a constitution, when a deletion operational information of a certain object exists in the queue, it can be judged that no resultant changes will be caused by update processings performed before the object deletion. Thus, by deleting the update operational informations for the certain object from the queue, there can be further reduced the quantity of informations to be transmitted between the information administrating functions.
Further, the information deletion function may be constituted to delete, when an update operational information for a certain object is stored in the queue, those update operational informations for the certain object which update operational informations have been stored before the update operational information.
According to such a constitution, even when the update of the certain object is performed for several times, it is possible for other information administrating functions to update the certain object to the latest contents by virtue of the latest update operational information only. Namely, it can be said that the truly necessary update operational information for the certain object is the latest one. As such, by deleting those update operational informations for the certain object which informations have been stored before the latest update operational information for the certain object, there can be further reduced the quantity of informations to be transmitted between the information administrating functions.
A sixth solution for achieving the above purposes is constituted by a medium recorded with an information transmission program in a store-and-forward type of electronic conference system in which operational informations representing operations performed for various objects are stored in a queue and the stored operational informations are batch transmitted between information administrating functions which administrate the various objects, wherein the medium is recorded with a program for realizing a transmission state registration function for registering the transmission state of the operational information, an error detection function for detecting as to whether a transmission error has occurred or not, a registration controlling function for registering into the transmission state registration function, when an occurrence of transmission error is detected by the error detection function, the information administrating function which is the destined information administrating function and for which the transmission error has occurred, a skipping function for retrieving the transmission state registration function, and for skipping the transmission of the operational information to the information administrating function which is registered in the transmission state registration function.
According to such a constitution, the medium is recorded with the program for realizing the transmission state registration function, the error detection function, the registration controlling function, and the skipping function. As such, the information transmission program according to the present invention can be distributed, and those, who have obtained such a medium, can easily constitute the information transmission apparatus, making use of a general electronic computer.